1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Reach out to the person who helped you: July 12th, 10:25am

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

The coach or teacher that helped you get to this place in your life, reach out and thank them, NOWAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to One-on-One with D.P. Brought to you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome back to one-on-one. Yeah, I'm headed to Carolina to coach some coaches and to teach some teachers. And Thursday is at a college in Greensboro, and Friday is at a college. in Guilford, North Carolina. So looking forward to that. And a big part of it just has me thinking.

In the old school, I ask this of you all. And I'll do it again because I think it's worthy. A big part of the impact of influence, the books that have been a part of, it's a bunch of coaches from around the country who simply give a nod to people who have had a positive impact on them or had positive influence on them in their lives and their career and how they're living.

And what I love about it is an opportunity. In volume one, I chose my brother, my older brother, because I was lucky enough to have a hero in my house. And it was a chance to pay tribute to him, an homage to my older brother. The second one was the organization in which I played in as a kid. We were the Black Knights. And when I said Black Knight, those are colors. So we had Army colors, black and gold.

But it was the most diverse group of folks, even back in the 70s. This was a place where if you were a black night, you were a black night. You weren't a white black night. You were a black night. And I needed that in that space. And then finally, in the last one, I chose my high school baseball coach, who a man by the name of Del Norwood. And Del Norwood is the father of Scott Norwood from the Buffalo Bills who missed the kick.

But Scott Norwood was a big reason why I got into college and got the scholarship that I did because he referred some folks to me. So shout out to Scott and Del Norwood for what they did. But it was a chance to tell the story. And he pitched for the senators in the Red Sox back in the day. In one game, he used to tell the story all the time about striking out Hank Aaron, Willie Mays in a game, but then also giving up a home run to Willie Mays in the next event. But he was a former Marine, and he was the first one to challenge me to try. Give yourself a chance.

Just try. And so in old school, I asked Jay and I asked Rico, whose shoulders do you stand on? Whose shoulders gave you leverage and an opportunity and new vision? Like sometimes you got to get on folks' shoulders to see over what you can see to what's greater for you. or coming to you. And I'll ask you, just take a moment. And what teacher, parent, neighbor, coach helped you, or impacted you or influenced you in a positive way to help you become the version of you that you are today?

And if possible, once that person comes to mind or those people come to mind, that if you can, if at all possible, because I would give, anything to share my thoughts and my love for coaching Norwood with him. I just would. There are coaches that help me through the way that I wish I could just simply text or call or write a letter and say thank you. So I challenge you today. I know this is a little off the beaten path for folks,

but take a moment and think of somebody that did that for you. And if you can, in this day and age with Facebook and social media and texting and you might be able to find them and you should you absolutely should say thank you for somebody because teaching is love coaching is love mentoring is love educating is love for the lady in your neighborhood that made you sandwiches when when mom was busy or would step up for the family when mom was sick, right? The guy down the street who will whisper basketball secrets to you when your dad wasn't around.

All right, hey man, listen, I'm watching you. Like, do you think? There were guys in my neighborhood. I can think of Mr. Miller who taught me how to play guitar. Right? I can think of Mr. Peyton who wanted me to be a catcher and then recognized pretty quickly that he, as he said, you're too fast to play catcher.

I wanted to play catcher. because you got the ball all the time. Right? Mr. Seifus, who taught me more about basketball and one sitting watching the Virginia Squires back in the day built the love for this thing.

My cousin, Pete, who will come down from New York and bring some of the New York game down to Virginia. And he was like, okay, there's this guy. He was the first person I heard talk about Dr. Jay. And he would explain it to me. He introduced me to George Gervis. in the one-handed shot.

He introduced me to Don O. Hillman. But there's a lady, Peggreens, who was my English teacher, who was the first woman who said, you're going to be a great writer one day. I've a little black kid who was struggling academically.

That changed my whole life. That changed my whole life. So for whoever that is for you, it will take you no time and it caused you no pain for you to say thank you to them. Do it. Do it. It'll make your day.

I promise you and it'll make theirs. It will make their day. As a coach, anybody that played for me over the course of this, over the course of the years, we explain that you have to love people how they want to be loved, right? and as grandparents, my grandparents, they weren't on the computer, they didn't understand that.

So I would write letters, handwrite letters to them because that's how they process. That's how they, so each of my players would write a letter to their parents and their grandparents from their own hand in their own words. And 201, those letters are in a special folder or in a special frame to debt. because what it took, what it meant for those young people to write those letters and send them. I still have these study programs. I still have them. The 168s.

The 168 would simply ask players to break down. Listen, you're here. The greatest excuse for not accomplishing anything is I do not have the time. But the person who does and the person who doesn't has the same amount of time. they have the same 168 hours a week there are people that choose and the people don't and so we break it down you know the 40 hours of sleep uh you know the 56 hours of sleep the 40 hours of school right to go through and in most cases there was a window in a pocket of about the difference of greatness and not greatness is about 40 hours a week and it was what you were doing with those 40

hours. And listen, if your 40 hours were fully occupied, I got you as a coach for 20 hours a week. And if I was a man of my word and a man of my intention, those 40 hours is where I was going get from you, what I need to get from you, which was usually you paying attention to the thing that mattered most. Student was first. It was a head of athlete. So we focused on that. And then we focused on being together. And we focused on paying attention. and being respectful for teachers. We had a day. We picked a day each year,

each week where the teachers got the jerseys and were invited to be a part of it. The teachers, whatever task the teacher assigned, aside from their schoolwork, was done. So sometimes it was getting the chalkboard clear and rewriting the new study program or to help them grade and record grades and projects that were due,

keeping track of projects that were coming. All of those things, letters to parents and those sort of things. And so the teachers knew right away whether they were impacting because they knew from that week, I gave you five assignments, you got four of them perfect. The other one you missed the thing, let's go over and cover that. Versus the person they got one of the five, okay, we got some work, I need some more time.

And I had to go to teachers and say, hey, listen, this will seem like a lot of work. but if I can make your teachers, your teaching and they're receiving better by you giving each of my players, whether it's 15 players in basketball or 50 in football, can you give them each three minutes every Friday? Because what you're going to find out is

you're going to have less work the rest of the week. The easiest kids to coach in the entire school in every school that I was at were my players. why because they were engaged they were connected and she really didn't have to go back three weeks she never had to we never got those 23rd hour emails that hey he's he can't play he might have to be able to play this week because he's struggling academically no we never had any of that we got it from day one and you talk about the peace of mind of a parent to not have to worry about whether your kids struggling academically a teacher understanding where

that parents know what's going on with their kid and being able to report to their administrators and bosses that my kids are not only getting it, they're excelling at it. And imagine the teacher's showing up in unison for athletic programs. Because they're connected to the kid. They know how hard the kid's working.

They know it matters. So through all of this, it's educating parents and students and mentors and educators. and coaches on all the things that are required and in place. And it simplifies what we do. And I'm just going to repeat it again. If you have the opportunity to say thank you to somebody who patted you on the back

or kicked you in the pants, because both may have been required, right? If you have the chance to find a teacher, a coach, a mentor, that neighbor, that neighbor lady that sat on the front porch and watched and whispered to you to go right when you were going left. If you can do that today, you'll make their day and yours. I'm just saying, give it a shot. We'll close out one-on-one when we come back, set you up for the captain's show. It's riffing with Raff and Davis today. Looking forward to putting the guys in the daytime light.

If you haven't heard their shows, you're in for a joyful, joyful, ride from 11 to 2 today. We'll be right back. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 937 The Ticket and The Ticketfm.com.